Notes / Commercial Description:
Spiced with vanilla, cinnamon, ancho and chipotle peppers, then aged 100% in Bourbon Barrels, this beer wants to leap onto your palate like a luchador who dives into the ring from atop the highest rope.

Optics are as expected - oil black with a thin lacing. Aroma is luxurious - the vanilla & oak are rich, and there's a great balance of cinnamon with a little pepper for dimension. The tongue doesn't get quite the same treatment. It's a little washed out from a heavy wood bourbon & surprisingly the pepper (the heat I think drowns out some other flavors). It's really missing that outstanding vanilla you get on the nose, or any other of the more decadent notes (chocolate, cinammon). It's still a good beer, but just fades into the crowd a little too much with that generic barrel-aged flavor.

Smell - Aside from the chocolate malts, I detect a hint of spice. I do not detect the booze.

Taste - The beer is lightly boozy chocolate at the beginning. The spice begins toward the back, but it seems to lean toward cinnamon. I am reminded of Christmas cookies with a pine hint that lingers in back.

Bought a bottle at the Beer Shop in East Longmeadow. The beer pours with a black color appearance and little to no head except for a dark brown color ring around the glass. Aromas are rich in vanilla, cinnamon, and bourbon with hints of dark chocolate, cocoa, and coffee as well. Taste followed the nose with some malty and bitter vanilla-bourbon mix and definitely hints of that chipotle pepper spice in the mix near the aftertaste. In terms of mouthfeel, the beer has an excellent, creamy texture while keeping some medium carbonation. Overall, this beer was fantastic across the board.

Pour is a very dark brown hue, khaki colored head that settles to a ring pretty quickly. Aroma is a little muted, still getting chocolate, lactose and subtle hints of cinnamon and oak. Following the nose well, with nothing more or nothing less, the taste consists of chocolate, hints of cinnamon. Not much bourbon or barrel involved. Mouthfeel is more on the velvety side, low carbonation. Unfortunately I wish there was more of a noticeable pepper profile and/or bourbon.

Black and thin. Much too thin for the style. No barrel at all and very minimal spice, but the spice somewhat comes around as this warms. Lip smacking sweetness almost chokes me. The alcohol isn't in your face here, but still doesn't make this pleasant to drink. My first really disappointing brew from clown shoes.